The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
In the area of lawn watering, lawn sprinklers have been known and used for years. For example, square oscillating sprinklers have been used along with a water hose to water a given area of lawn. To make watering a lawn more convenient, programmable timers have also been known. A programmable timer can be used to set the time at which the lawn is to be watered. In a typical setup, a programmable timer is connected to a water source on one end and a hose, which is connected to a lawn sprinkler, on the other end. A user could then program or set the water timer, and the lawn sprinkler would come on at the pre-designated time intervals.
One drawback of this system is that if the soil is already moist and does not need to be watered, a conventional water timer cannot adjust accordingly, and simply turns on according to its pre-programmed watering cycle and waters the lawn when it is not needed. This may cause damage to the lawn and at a minimum, is a waste of water. For example, if the lawn has just received an extensive amount of water due to a rainstorm, a conventional water timer would simply turn on the sprinkler, regardless of the moisture content of the soil.
Another drawback of this system is if the soil is already moist due to excessive watering by the lawn sprinkler itself, the timer will stay on according to its pre-programmed watering cycle and the lawn sprinkler will continue watering the lawn, despite the moisture level of the soil.